- 5 weeks ago
Chef Day runs the kitchen at Apt 4B, a restaurant and vinyl bar in Atlanta with local art adorning the walls. She chops it up here with Dine Diaspora’s Nina Oduro. The two discuss food, activism, and what it’s like to lead a kitchen with a strong female presence.
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00:00Hey, this is Bison Beats chopping it up delivered by Grubhub and I'm talking to
00:11Chef Dayana Joseph today. She's going to be sharing with us her journey and her talent
00:17and really working the food industry as a woman leader. And before we get started, I know when
00:24I start talking about food, it makes me hungry and you're probably going to be hungry too. So
00:28I want you to order a dish of your choice from Grubhub and don't forget to use the Afropunk
00:36discount code AFROPUNK. So I hope you enjoy and let's get ready. So Chef Day, how are you
00:42doing today? And just tell us a little bit about what you had to eat today.
00:49Hi, how are you? I'm so good. I'm really, really good. Today, what did I have to eat? Honestly,
00:55I'm a terrible breakfast person because I get up, I work out, or I may not, and then
01:01I don't have time. But I did have five shots of healthy juices, like lemon, green juice,
01:10cucumber, and cranberry. And then I had a smoothie. So that's all that I had this morning. Being
01:16a chef, I don't always get to eat. That's why I asked you that because I'm like, you're always
01:22super busy running around a whole restaurant, executive chef. I'm going to get into that later
01:27because that's amazing for you to be leading such an amazing restaurant in Atlanta. But before we get
01:33into a lot of what you're doing now, let's take it back. You know, I want to know what really
01:38inspired you to become a chef in the first place. Sure. So actually, my career as a chef started a
01:47little bit after I had probably one of the worst breakups of my life. And I was really trying to
01:53find more purpose and more things to connect to so that I felt more fulfilled. So I decided to become
02:00a chef because I've always cooked. I always love to entertain. One of the greatest corner story,
02:04cornerstones in my family was that we ate together. That was like the most functional time we spent
02:10together was like around a meal. So I was always really into entertaining and feeding people and
02:16having people come over. And I decided to pursue a culinary career. And I wanted I know that I wanted
02:23to start in culinary at the most elevated level that I could think of because before that I was in
02:30luxury fashion. So I wanted to keep this in momentum and go right into fine dining. And I started working
02:36at Danielle, which is part of the Danielle Bouloud Dinex restaurant group by Chef Danielle Bouloud.
02:43And I started there because like I said, I wanted to find purpose. I wanted to feel fulfilled.
02:48I remember praying and asking God for direction because I wanted something that no one could take
02:54away from me, something that I could really feel full and purposeful and execute as my assignment,
03:00which is what I call, you know, living a purpose driven life was I really wanted to dive into
03:04food as well as like food, social justice and just teaching people, especially black people how to eat
03:11better. That's really an amazing inspiration into into the food industry. And one thing that always
03:18fascinates me about that journey is that you think about fashion and you think about food and not too
03:24many people cross over, right? And you took your industry stuff and really brought it to it. It's not
03:31like you just left it. It was also like feeds into what you do now. How did you like, what did you
03:36bring over? What lessons and things did you bring over into your work in food? Sure. So one of the
03:43things that I mostly pride myself on when I started as a line cook at Danielle was that I noticed a lot of
03:49the women who were working on the line, you couldn't really distinguish male from female. And it's not
03:54necessarily that we needed to put a huge emphasis on sex, but I just felt like or gender rather, I just
04:00felt like a lot of women felt like they just needed to wear the big oversized chef coats and tie their
04:07hair back. And there wasn't too much of an ounce of femininity from women who would leave work and then put
04:12around a dress and heels or something to go out after. So one of my biggest goals, especially coming
04:17from the fashion industry, was that I really wanted to make sure that my appearance was always one that
04:23made me feel like the best representation of myself. I always wanted to make sure that no one would mistake
04:29me for one of the boys on the line. I had colorful head wraps that I would wear on the line as well as
04:33I made sure to buy my own chef coat so that they would all fit accordingly. And some of the more
04:39technical and education-based things that I brought with me from the fashion industry was I love a
04:44well-dressed plate. I love coordination. I love pairing things and making them really, really beautiful.
04:49And that is one of the strongest parts of my cooking, I believe, is making the food visually
04:54appealing first because you always eat with your eyes. So I took my knowledge of merchandising. I took my
05:00knowledge of buying and coordinating colors and staying true to seasonality. So, you know, in fashion,
05:06we have like the fall, summer, cruise, spring seasons, and food, we also have those seasons as
05:12well. We have fall, winter, spring, summer, and all those different seasons encompass a different
05:19variation of fruits and vegetables. So I definitely love to cook seasonally and root to stem, which I
05:25guess I took away from working in fashion. And when working seasonally with different ingredients,
05:31not only do I think about how do they pair well per taste, but I always figure out different ways to
05:36make them beautiful on the plate. It's a difference between me deciding to shave a piece of radish or
05:42cut a piece of radish in a different way so that if I shaved it, it's like kind of almost paper thin
05:47and crystal clear and it looks really beautiful on the plate. Or if I chopped it up and quartered it,
05:53then it'll look a little bit more architectural and it'll have more shape to it in that way. So I
05:59definitely blend my knowledge of things that just look good. And, you know, basically the good taste
06:05that I do have into making the food look that just as good. And I think, you know, you said it,
06:11you eat with your eyes first. And I definitely do that. And I will say, and then you get the taste,
06:17right? Those two things go together. And you do it so well. I've seen the artistry on the plate
06:23and then tasting it. And you're like, okay, it makes sense. Because you don't want the two to be
06:28imbalanced. And I always get that from your work. But I also think about, you know, you bringing your
06:34femininity, you bringing your woman-ness to the kitchen. But one thing I have noticed is that
06:40oftentimes in leadership roles in the food industry, males dominate and they dominate from a very masculine
06:47leadership style. What have you been able to bring to that and how you've been able to bring yourself as a
06:54woman to your leadership role? Yes. So I definitely, my leadership abilities kind of really stem from
07:02the fact that I am a nurturer, you know, that I am a woman, that I am extremely maternal, even though
07:07my patients could be a little short. And one of the biggest things that I do is I make sure that
07:12the cooks that I bring on, first of all, my ads always read, you know, looking for culinarians as
07:17opposed to cooks. Because I want people to come and work for me that are excited about
07:21prospectively becoming chefs. I want, you know, young Black women and young Black men who are
07:27looking for a leg up and especially in the fine dining industry to start with their experience
07:31with me. So I definitely push them to be better versions of their selves constantly. And I
07:37definitely reiterate that, you know, I'm only as good as they are. So when I first opened the
07:42restaurant for about three to four weeks, I was cooking all the food. And now I'm able to step back
07:47and take more, take care of more admin things and menu changes because now they've learned how to
07:51cook just like me, for the most part. And they're always, they're also able to take real authority
07:56for their stations, their real authority for the things that are under their care and under their
08:01responsibility. And that's one of the biggest things that I push. And I think that, you know,
08:05when you consider food, you consider it, you know, at home, the archaic sensibility is that women cook.
08:11And like your aunts and your daughters and your, your mothers are the ones in the kitchen. Rather,
08:16when you think about the professional side of cooking, it's mostly men who get all the accolades
08:21and are very small roles for women to play in those restaurants. And I think that it's a disservice
08:27to that because a lot of the men who are receiving these accolades learn to cook from their grandmothers
08:31and their mothers. And I think there needs to be a better balance and an equilibrium of feminine
08:35energy, meaning masculine energy in the kitchen, because I think the masculine energy sometimes comes off as
08:41very, um, kind of blood sport, like, you know, it's very competitive. It's very like,
08:46oh, how many times did I burn myself today? I'm going to get another tattoo to cover up this burn
08:50and, and very competitive and very like, you know, show me a little bit, sometimes pomp and
08:55circumstance. Sometimes a lot of the food that is made is way more fluff than it is soul. And you
09:00kind of miss the mark on the taste because there's so many techniques that they may make. And I think
09:05that when you have a woman in the kitchen, you can actually tell because there's a little bit more
09:09patience, there's a little bit more love poured into the food. And that's not to speak ill of any
09:13men who are in those positions, because I know some amazing male chefs who don't operate with
09:17any prejudice or any, um, real kind of, uh, stipulations about hiring women. But if you think
09:23about the grand scheme of the culinary industry, it has definitely needed this pause so that we can
09:28change and like, kind of reassess, uh, the way that people are treated in kitchens. And we should
09:34definitely, I am a proponent of, like I said before, of nurturing my cooks and having them
09:39believe in what I believe, because I think that as a leader, once I can convince you to love the
09:45things that I love and to execute on the level that I want to execute, your energy is going to match
09:49mine and we're going to make something beautiful together. So it works easier for me to, um, coach
09:54them and nurture them as opposed to scold them and yell and throw things. Cause I come from,
09:59you know, the kitchen where they threw things and I had to, you know, kind of move out the way and
10:05dunk. And I had to grow such tough skin to be able to deal with some of the ways that my chefs were
10:10talking to me. And I pride myself on not cursing at anybody. And, you know, in a kitchen, it could
10:15be a real sailor. Like it could be a real sailboat because everybody's cursing, but like cursing at
10:21someone, understanding when to speak to them with direct, when being more direct rather than being
10:26hateful or, or rather than diminishing their pride and diminishing the way that they feel about
10:31themselves just to get a result. I believe like slight constant pressure gives me what I want. So
10:37slight constant pressure on a cook, depending on what they need to improve on, whether it's working
10:42clean, working faster and more diligently, or just like having a sense of confidence because being in
10:47the kitchen, there is a huge, um, confidence pays a huge part of it. If you're not confident in the way that
10:53you're moving, if you're not confident in your abilities, your skillset, you can make mistakes,
10:57you can, uh, cause other people to get hurt and you can delay the team because it's all the team
11:03effort. You're only one part of like a bigger picture. Yeah. And I think what you're saying is
11:09like, uh, is one of the key things to making change in the industry, more women, more black women with
11:16mindsets like yours about the type of change that is needed in the industry is necessary. So having a
11:23restaurant is not just about being in the industry, but being in leadership positions is critical to
11:27changing what the behavior looks like, how men and women behave and engage. Um, and I think you're on
11:33your way, you're doing that right now. And I want you to talk more about how, you know, apartment 4B, um,
11:40you opened it during COVID. Um, how has that been, you know, and first, just tell me about the vision.
11:46It's beautiful thing that you've opened such a beautiful restaurant. What was that vision in the first place?
11:51Sure. So I'm super proud to be part of the team at apartment 4B. Um, I don't own it personally.
11:57There are a group of owners who are friends. There's about five of them. And, um, those same
12:02owners, uh, the, one of the owners, his mother, um, opened a grill in New York. So he comes from like
12:09the lineage of like the, uh, upscale Caribbean fine dining. And, um, he also opens and he opened
12:16another restaurant called Ms. Icy's with his now partners, um, here in Decatur in Atlanta and their
12:22vision, which I just kind of came on board and consulted on the menu and, um, and putting a lot
12:27of my taste and, uh, design within the plate where, and how we were going to run the kitchen,
12:31their vision was basically like, they wanted to open, um, a restaurant that felt like your cool
12:36friend's apartment. You know, they wanted the, the, they wanted to have a space that was both,
12:41uh, feminine and masculine. Um, they tell a story of how the man who owns this beautiful
12:47loft apartment is a photographer and the woman who owns it as well is a DJ. So we have over
12:5310,000 records to represent her love of music. Um, those records were procured from a, I believe
12:59he was like 80 something years old, had been collecting records for over 60 years. So we have
13:03a ton of different records, everything from the Annie soundtrack to Wu-Tang Clan to a John Travolta
13:09album and like the Bob Marley legend album. And basically they created this space because
13:14they wanted you to feel at home. They wanted you to feel relaxed as if you're in a trendy
13:19New York loft. And we all have that friend who's home we go into and we're always looking
13:23around and we're like, where's that? Where did you get this? Like, and they're like, oh,
13:27I went to Kenya. I got this, this tapestry from Ghana. These books I foraged in the streets
13:34of Bed-Stuy. And, and like, this is a refurbished lamp that I got from an estate sale. So it very
13:39much has those, um, collaborations. Everything in the space is upcycled and reused or rebought.
13:47Like the chairs that we bought are not brand new. We actually just reupholstered chairs that
13:51were already in the space. The tables that we got are, um, slates of recycled marble that
13:56we found and then we built together. The, um, you know, maybe the plates are new. That's the
14:00only a new thing I got to do that. And so the, um, the vision overall, like I said,
14:05it's a cool space, right? So we wanted it to be friendly, approachable, but have like this,
14:10we call it a, um, an understated elegance, you know? So we set our tables with beautiful
14:15wine glasses that you use as water goblets. We have beautiful napkins. The plateware is
14:21thoughtfully curated to match the theme of the space. We have glass china that is reminiscent
14:25of the china that your parents would have in their home or their grandparents would have in
14:29their home. And, um, it's just essentially, like I said, it's lots of found objects, which
14:34I think is a very like, uh, New York niche. I remember living in Brooklyn and like everybody
14:40I knew, like all their furniture was things that they found from around the neighborhood
14:43or even bought at a state sale. So that's how the concept came up. And we have, um, a beautiful
14:48art wall that's actually covered in art by a local Atlanta artist. And our goal is to allow
14:54artists in Atlanta to hang their, their art on the wall and create some sort of a gallery
15:00where they can always have their art up and they can price it as they'd like. And we can
15:05sell it to our patrons if they should be interested in buying a piece of art, like right off the
15:09wall. So that way we don't have to, you know, buy art. That's like not tangible art. That's
15:15not personal. We wanted to open the market to, um, artists as well. We're just looking for
15:20spaces to be seen. And because we get such a diverse group of people coming into apartment
15:25for me, it's very easy for them to be seen. So I came in at the tail end of the project
15:30as everything was being finalized, as they had already picked the colors for the banquets
15:34and the tables and things like that. And I basically, you know, what I told him, I was
15:38like, we need plants. We need plants, real plants, no fake plants. Cause that's bad
15:44bouchoy. And we need some fly bowls and plates because if we have fly bowls and plates, even
15:50if we're selling roti, you know, and braised goat is still going to look good, you know?
15:55So that's why I was part of the design. It sounds like you had, um, great inspiration,
16:02um, as you were going on, but they had already had this great vision that you were coming in
16:06and adding, um, pieces of what your vision is to, and I love, it sounds like, it sounds like
16:11a place where when you were talking, it feels, it feels, um, familiar and it feels new at
16:17the same time. It's like a place you've been, but a place you've been at the same, all in
16:20the same place. But I'm wondering, you know, when you heard the vision, when you started
16:25to get, you know, um, shape that for yourself, how did that translate to the menu that you,
16:31um, shaped for the restaurant? Sure. So they told me to cook like I would cook for my friends
16:38and my friends are very lucky because they get to eat all types of things when they
16:41come to my house. When they come to my house, they're greeted with a cheese board, um, with
16:45duck prosciutto and all types of fancy things. Right. And so when I thought about things that
16:50I would want to put on the menu, I'm a very decadent cook. Like I love fat. I love things
16:55that are braised slow. I love things that are, um, that take a long time to cook where the
16:59sauce is super pungent and, and everything means something. You can taste the round spices.
17:04You can taste like the all spice. You can taste the coriander. So, um, and of course they
17:09also wanted Caribbean food and I wanted to take a step further and make it Afro Caribbean
17:14because I do love African food as well. And I think that once we opened it to Afro Caribbean,
17:19that means that we are touching on so many different parts of the diaspora. So I thought
17:23about all the street foods that I can incorporate into the menu. I thought about all of the sauces
17:27and the braises that I could incorporate to menu as well as, um, implementing my fine dining
17:32training and using French and Italian techniques that I know as well. So we make all of our
17:37pasta by hand. Um, we make all of our braises cook for at least three to six hours. We braise
17:42things as if we were in the French kitchen. However, I seasoned them like the Haitian woman
17:46that I am. So it was a really fun menu to write because I've, I've been thinking about this
17:51sort of menu for a very long time. I've been wanting to put Afro Caribbean food on a pedestal
17:57and elevate it. And there are so many chefs, um, that are already doing that. Now I know
18:01a couple of chefs that are doing it in London. And I know of course, like chef Kwame did it
18:05in DC at Kith and Ken where, um, he was making bro tea. He was making bus up shut. He was making
18:10oxtails and taking it up just a notch and presenting it on a really beautiful plate and making the portions
18:16smaller so that they would be elevated. And I instantly thought about that. I wanted to blend
18:20technique and tradition together. And I also wanted to infer my taste and I wanted to cook
18:26everything root to stem so that we are a more sustainable restaurant because restaurants tend
18:31to be the ones that produce the most waste, um, food wise. And so we literally use everything,
18:37any trimmings we, we have from our veg, we use for stock. I don't do too many fancy cuts where I
18:43only need like a fifth of the fruit. Like I use everything. If I'm going to use, um, a, uh,
18:49jackfruit, I'm going to toast the seeds and turn them into some sort of a topping for something.
18:55Um, I also believe in cooking root to stem, which means literally using a veg that may
19:00have the root. A lot of people think that, you know, when you get like a green onion, you
19:04should trim off the little beard part because it's not good. That's where all that, um, flavor
19:09is actually from, cause that's what grows out of the ground. So I may take that off and dust it with
19:14some cornstarch and fry it and put it on top of a dish as garnish, as well as buying microgreens
19:19that compliment the plate. So the microgreens I use are not just because they're beautiful. I use them
19:24because they compliment the taste and the texture of whatever it is that I'm cooking. If I'm cooking
19:29something that's herbaceous and cilantro heavy, I'll use a micro cilantro. If I'm using something
19:34that's a little spicier, I'll use, um, radish, uh, microgreens that are a little bit more pungent
19:40and spicy. So it definitely, when they, they kind of give you free reign, to be honest,
19:45they were like, we like the way you cook. We like the way that you blend Afro-Caribbean
19:50things together. We like the way that, you know, your jerk chicken isn't jerk chicken, it's jerk
19:55duck. Like, and it, it kind of takes everything up a notch. And like I mentioned before, I want
20:00to familiarize black people to certain things that we're not used to eating and things that
20:05we would have an apprehension to eating. I believe that the way that I cook today is if my ancestors
20:10had the access and the privilege of using some of the tools and the ingredients that I had,
20:15they'd be cooking the same way. You know what I mean? They wouldn't be just using the ends
20:19of animals. They would be using the whole animal. We're very innovative and ingenuitive, um, people.
20:24And I believe that the food that we pride ourselves on can be evolved and it needs to be evolved.
20:29And it needs to be evolved for our dietary needs so that we no longer suffer from hypertension
20:34and high blood pressure because we're frying everything. You know what I mean? It's okay to
20:38keep the standards of our tradition. Yeah. It's okay to keep the standards of our traditions,
20:43but it's also okay to eat them. It's okay to eat a medium steak because that iron is actually
20:48pretty good for you. You know, not everything needs to be fried hard. Not everything needs to be
20:52drenched in sauce and covered with parsley. You can use things a little bit more, um, with a little
20:58bit more knowledge and discernment because we can now access those things. There's no reason
21:03why we should only, we should be still eating chitlins unless it's like a real occasion or
21:09like you just really want it. I've never had it. I've heard great things. I've also heard
21:13some bad things about it, but it's pig-intested that our ancestors had to eat because they didn't
21:18have it. And now that we have it, we should be eating, um, uni and frat
21:24raw. And even though that's an intestine, it's a fine, like, it's a, you know what I mean? It's, it's a little bit more, um,
21:29it's elevated and it's what they eat. You know what I mean? And it's like, why couldn't we incorporate that into our food?
21:35So I was really excited to be able to do that. I don't, um, certain things I purposely don't put
21:40on my menu, not because I don't feel, I feel like I'm too good to put it on a menu, but I'm in the South.
21:45Everybody has chicken and waffles. I don't need to have chicken and waffles. I can do something different.
21:49You know, I can do, I don't have to have grits. I can do brown butter polenta, you know what I mean?
21:54And take it up a notch and expose people's palates to things that they, they wouldn't necessarily go to eat
22:00because oftentimes, um, we do ourselves a disservice as black owned, uh, black owned restaurants and black chefs.
22:06We only cook the things that we think people want to eat, but then our people are going to these other restaurants and the food is under seasoned.
22:14So why can't we cook what they have and just season it the way? So we, you know, the way that we're familiar in the way that we want day.
22:21I love what you're saying about using the whole, like root to stem. That's one of the approaches that, um, you wow me with every time.
22:28Cause I'm just like, how do you use everything from the vegetable? I've never known.
22:33I honestly, I think you should write a book about it. Um, but I do want to talk about, we're in a time where, you know, elections are coming up.
22:41Um, black lives matter COVID. There's so much going on in our lives as black people. Um, and the theme of this, this, um, this, um, festival is justice and joy.
22:52And I think that that kind of encapsulates some of the things that we're all going through.
22:56What does justice and joy mean for you right now?
23:00For me, it really means celebrating being black. I think that we're exposed to our trauma on such a large level constantly.
23:09It's always being fed to us. You know, unfortunately, the way that we seek justice is by having some of these injustices, uh, recorded and sharing them and, and, and pushing them forward so that people see what's happening.
23:22And it's, it really breaks my heart because I don't want to see another black person die on Instagram.
23:27I don't want to see another black woman being dragged on Instagram the way that I've seen it.
23:32And I really believe that, you know, because they make us experience so much of our own trauma that resistance is purely in joy.
23:39I believe that black joy is so palpable. Like I'm literally getting chills thinking about it.
23:44Like I love us. I love the way we dance, the way we speak, the way we move, the way that we adorn ourselves in jewels.
23:51And we always look good. Like always from doctor's appointments to me sitting on camera and be like, I need to find a good dress.
23:58You know, like it's being black is joyful. We are jovial people. We are people who love to gather and celebrate.
24:06And I think that the more that we push that, we push the narrative of taking care of each other and loving on each other.
24:12Because to be honest, if you really sat and thought about all the things that are going wrong in the world, you know, from environmental disasters to social justice to food, social justice to injustice and equalities to, you know, Brianna not receiving the due justice that she was supposed to receive.
24:34And, you know, there being this whole like code of arms for these people who are put into place to oppress us. Like we have no choice. We have no choice but to push our joy out at the forefront.
24:46We have no choice but to we gather the information that we have. We find it. We sit with it. We find our assignments.
24:53And when I say our assignments, the ways that we're able to contribute to our communities, whether you are a leader, whether you are a follower, a doer, a fixer, whatever it is that you are an educator.
25:03You find your assignment and you complete it and you don't just do your assignment for the check. You do your assignment for your for your neighborhood.
25:10I've seen so many initiatives pop up during these times, like community refrigerators and Bed-Stuy that were founded by some of my close friends, like, you know, where people are able to have access to fresh foods and vegetables for free.
25:22You know, I've seen different chefs completely change around their entire restaurants and become more community friendly and community safe spaces like Chef Daniel Hum changed Eleven Madison Park into a commissary kitchen for the poor and the people who are hurt during quarantine.
25:41And I think that that's all we have. Our joy is all we have. It's palpable. It's copied. It's constantly trying to be diminished by people who impose their judgments on how we celebrate each other and on how we decide to show our joy.
25:56And I think that I know that the thing that's going to keep us going as a community is, like I said, you find your assignment, you complete it and you love on each other and you continue to express that joy.
26:07And within that joy, we will find justice because we have been a resilient people for so long.
26:12And the things that we cannot get now, we plant seeds so that we can harvest them later.
26:16And so I was talking the other day about millennial parenting and how much of a difference I've seen in black fathers of my generation compared to their father's generation and how involved people are in their kids' lives.
26:31And this whole kids being homeschooled things is bringing families closer together.
26:35It's helping families address some of the developmental and emotional issues that their children have because they're spending more time with their children.
26:42So I believe that in our joy, we will find justice because once we start to permeate and perpetuate the fact that we cannot be broken down and that despite anything that's thrown at us, we're going to continue to radiate the amount of love and joy that we do have.
26:57They'll have no choice but to listen to us. I think that the fighting that we do now has to look different from what our ancestors did.
27:04I think that the fighting that we do now has to be for accountability, for representation, for understanding and for diversity and understanding that black people are not linear.
27:14That we have so many different angles and so many different levels of who we are.
27:19Intersectionality and blackness needs to be what empowers our joy and us standing up for everyone.
27:25Black trans lives, you know, black women's lives as well should be one of the biggest proponents for change for us as people.
27:34You know, putting nasty like habits like colorism and making fun of each other and toxic misogyny and toxic monogamy to the side and stop giving that power.
27:45Stop making memes about what black relationships are and start fixing the one that you're in, the one that you're in with your mother, your father, your son, your lover, all those different things need to be addressed.
27:55And I think within that, once they see that we're not moving, we're unshakable and they've seen it, you know, but what happens is like we play to their game and we stop loving on each other and we bit against each other.
28:10And I think that that's where we lose. And for me, that's why food is so important to me, because food is a catalyst for change.
28:16Food is a catalyst for empowerment. Food brings people around the table and allows them to put their guards down and share things that they most likely wouldn't share.
28:25And I am humbled to be able to serve and find my assignment in food, social justice, as well as just simply making a meal to treat to cheer someone up.
28:34I think that as black folk, we're either eating, dancing, singing, hugging on each other, loving on each other, and that's all they need to see.
28:41Like, that's all that needs to be viral, like moving forward.
28:45I agree with you. Food in so many ways does bring justice and does bring joy.
28:50Just like some of the examples you shared, so many people in the food industry totally looking at how their food and how their talent can be used to solve issues that we're having right now.
29:01And one of the things I want to do with you, Chef Day, is play a little game that brings me a little joy.
29:07It's called Grubhub or Pass. So here are the rules.
29:11So I'm going to share with you a dish. And if you would want it delivered to you right now to have, you could just say Grubhub.
29:18And if you're like, nah, that's not for me, I don't want it, just say Pass. You ready?
29:24Got it. Ready.
29:26All right. So let's first up is Shrimp and Grits.
29:30Grubhub.
29:32Okay. Yes, I would do the same.
29:35Second up is Oxtail.
29:38Pass.
29:40Because they never give you enough.
29:43They never give you enough when you order Oxtail.
29:46I feel like Oxtail is an interpersonal experience.
29:49Like you got to look the person in the eye who's serving your Oxtail so they know how much you want it and how much you mean it so they can give you an extra piece.
29:57Because otherwise when you order it, it's only going to be like three or four pieces. That's happened to me before. And I've been really disappointed.
30:03So y'all heard that. That is an Oxtail ordering lesson for you. Try to go there. So what about pineapple pizza?
30:13Grubhub.
30:14Yeah. No, that's not for me. But you know, if you like it, you like it. That's not for me. Red velvet cake.
30:24Pass.
30:25Yes.
30:26What?
30:27This is why I'm just looking for you and enjoy what you have because I'm willing to eat everything.
30:35But definitely I'm a red velvet cake kind of girl.
30:38But honestly, it's been such a great conversation talking to you about your journey, the things that you've been doing during this time, but also just your role as a woman executive chef and a leader in the kitchen.
30:51I can't wait to see what you're about to do next. And just honestly, can't wait to come to your restaurant and try the food.
31:00Thank you so much. It was a pleasure talking to you. Thank you for always thinking of me.
31:04And thank you for pushing the conversation forward about food, social justice and just like the role that, you know, black people play in the culinary scene. I really appreciate it.
31:13So you're home now. I know you're probably hungry. You definitely want to check out the discount code that we have with Grubhub.
31:19All you need to do is order your favorite dish. Check out all the list of restaurants they have and you can get 15% off an order of $15 or more.
31:29So check it out and have a good bite.
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